I find it a bit strange, too, to give such a number. Quite a ridiculous forecast if you ask me. What if it's september 2006, Airbus sold their 78 aircraft and a huge Chinese customer wants 100 A380s? What's Airbus going to say? "Sorry we said last year that we would sell only 78 planes"

Right , 78 is really a strange number.It's really too precise !!!!!!!
Do they already have commitments (and we do not know) for this number ?
..........or perhaps they said 78 , since "8" is a fetich number in China ?

No , it's not a delivery number.
This morning i bought the newspaper "La Tribune" to read the interview , and she really says :"..........in 2004 we have sold 44 planes , and we expect to sell 78 in 2006."
So where is the year 2005? Surely 78 is the number they expect to have in the basket in 2005 , NOT 2006.Just my though.
Airbus expect to have 50% of the Chinese market in less than 10 years.

It says that they are allowed to sell 78 planes in China next year. Maybe that exact number is due to the central purchase policy they have in China. I remember they bought 60 787 and then somehow spread them to the singe carriers.

PARIS (AFX) - EADS unit Airbus 'should sell 78 planes in China in 2006,' and aims to capture half of the Chinese market in the years to come, the chief executive of the group's Chinese unit Laurence Barron said.

'This year we will deliver 65 planes in China, or one out of six (Airbuses delivered)... we are in full-scale growth there,' Barron told French business daily La Tribune in an interview.

Under the group's target, 50 pct of all Chinese planes will be Airbuses in the 'coming years', up from 30 pct now and 7 pct 10 years ago, he said.

China could buy as many as 1,600 planes over the next 20 years, including 200 of the A380 super-jumbo, the group estimates.